Photo Albums

This Dalit hamlet in Bihar's Banka district is called English, and all the residents here have the same last name. Three generations ago, they gave up burning bodies and took up the more respectable occupation of making baskets

Vishnu Kumbhar’s family members in Kapashi village of Kolhapur district have been potters for 15 generations. But their rare skills are seldom recognised and they receive no support from the state to keep this great old tradition flourishing

A sudden demolition on August 3 in Vijayanagar colony of Anantapur town in Andhra Pradesh has left entire families – many of them daily wage workers or migrants – without homes, though officials insist they were only razing encroachments

The generations-old skill of weaving tussar silk in Banka district of Bihar is vanishing because of low returns, a lack of state support and cheaper imports. Only a fourth of the households in Katoria village now weave. This album documents some stages of their work

Images
from Mandvi in Kutch, Gujarat, where workers with skills inherited over
generations make wooden dhows using sal and babul timber. Ships made in Mandvi still carry
cargo to West Asian countries 400 years after the port was established

Titibai
and Terra Manjhi of Kadraja Mainpat in Surguja district, Chhattisgarh collect
forest produce for a living. Wild elephants often rampage through the village
causing destruction, forcing people to turn to the forest department help
centres

Images from a visit to Chirchirya hamlet of Banka district in Bihar at the time of the Sohrai harvest festival. During the festival, Santal women sing about their way of life while men play the instruments, and there is a feast and some mahua as well